Gaara's Journey Chapter Three
by Fluvial
Summary: Gaara's father makes some confessions to him.


6

When Gaara woke up he was sitting up with the help of six pillows. Apparently Kish's hoarding had come in useful for something. He could smell disinfectant and he was now on top of clean sheets. The first thing he laid eyes on was his father who had a thermometer in his shaky hands.

"Th-There you are Gaara."

His response, unsurprisingly, was to send another sand ball his way, but the narcotics threw off his aim and it ended up denting the ceiling instead.

"Gosh Gaara," Kankuro said from the kitchen, "It's already rotted. You don't want it to fall on you, do you?"

Gaara pretended not to hear him. "What's that?" he asked, addressing his father.

"This, this is a thermometer."

"Never heard of it."

"Yes, it's a strange device isn't it? Kankuro had to go to a market with walls to go steal one," Kish explained.

"Step away from me," was Gaara's angry reply.

"I can't till I take your temperature."

"No." Gaara said simply.

"Here Gaara," Temari said coming in. "I made you some plain rice, will you try to eat it?"

Gaara felt sick and uneasy. The mere sight of food made it worse. "Take it away."

Kish became slightly irritated. "We're just trying to help you, Gaara. Why do you have such a big problem with that?"

Gaara hesitated. He was semi-impressed that his father had actually gotten off the couch to work with him. He realized that he felt a hint of gratitude. But that soon turned into a bubbling rage.

"You only want to heal me so you won't feel so bad about fighting me and driving me away."

"Uh… No, that's not it, that's not it at all." Kish stuttered.

"You're pathetic. Stop lying in my face." He leaned forward and slapped the thermometer out of his father's hand, then pushed him away as effectively as he could. It was worth the pain. "Don't stand so close to me! Why don't you die?"

Kish sank back into his couch in defeat. Temari and Kankuro left the kitchen to stay close to their father. They were afraid that they would have to try to defend him against Gaara. Neither were too excited.

"Why are you so disrespectful to your own father?"

"You don't deserve respect."

"Deserve respect!" Kish roared. "I was once Kazekage, I ruled our village! How can you say that I don't deserve respect?"

Gaara closed his eyes and wouldn't say a word.

Kish scowled and seemed about to say something else, but Temari beat him to it.

"Come on, Dad, we all know what you did."

"What?" he said, even though he knew perfectly well.

"Well, you've only tried to kill him several times."

Gaara flinched in his seat, but didn't open his eyes.

"What was I supposed to do?" Kish exclaimed. "Didn't you see what he did? He still does it! I saw him kill a drunken man for running into him at the grand age of six years old! Do you hear me, _six years old! _What six-year-old does that? He didn't even bat an eye! He was supposed to protect the village and he was doing the polar opposite. I gave him numerous chances; I didn't want it to come to,"

"Well he could have used some guidance from you. Don't you think you could have taught him a few things? Like patience and restraint? Not to mention how you let the villagers treat him. Don't you think you could have explained things to them; like maybe how he couldn't help it sometimes and that you would work with him?"

"I did what I could," Kish moaned. "I couldn't come home till evening and the kid needed constant attention. Yashamaru was supposed to take care of it; apparently he did a lousy job."

Gaara fidgeted, "Don't mention his name."

Kish ignored him. "And then I asked him to kill the boy because I thought he would do it in the most humane way possible since he loved Gaara." Then Kish closed his eyes tightly. "How was I supposed to know that he didn't love Gaara at all?"

"I don't know, Dad." Temari said irritably. "One of the counts against you was that you wasted tax-payer's dollars on unpracticed assassins."

"Well," said Kish, "Even though I knew it probably wouldn't succeed, I figured that if it _did _succeed that it would still be the quickest and most humane way possible. And anyway, the tax-payers' dollars crap was a stupid claim," Kish said as he lifted his eyes up to the ceiling. "They were cheap, that's how I knew they'd suck. Yashamaru did it for free. At the time I thought it was because he thought he was doing a service to the boy since his life was so miserable."

Tears welled in Gaara's eyes, and he shut them tighter so no one would see.

"Wow Dad," Kankuro said, finally joining the conversation. "See Gaara, he isn't as bad as you think."

Gaara opened his eyes in a rage, "I said to stop talking about it. Shut up now, or I will kill you."

For the first time in months, Kish's face no longer looked hopeless. He sat up all the way. "Don't you ever do that to Kankuro again," He said in a sharp voice that no one had ever used with Gaara before. "I'm not going to tolerate your threats, do you understand me? As long as you are in this house you will not threaten your siblings or me or anyone else. Is that clear?"

For a second Gaara looked taken back, then he scowled and said, "What can you do? Aren't your chakra levels 60 over 44?"

"Don't test me."

Gaara seemed about to say more, but then he changed his mind.

Kankuro smiled, "Way to go Dad!"

Gaara glared at him, but didn't say a word. 

"Yeah, that's right," Kish snorted. "Now let me take your temperature, and after that you're going to drink a pain potion, no arguing."

.


End file.
